Friday, May 6, 2016

Browsing through
my old photographs taken during my stay at Salalah I came across the images I had
captured at the tomb of Prophet Nabi Ayoub or Job (English name). I did write
of this tomb briefly in another blog about 3 years back but did not delve into
the background then. Prophet Job or Ayoub has been mentioned in the Old Testament
as well as the Quran. Christians often refer to “Patience of Job and Muslims
refer to Ayoub’s Patience and try to emulate him in the face of adversities.

Ibn Kathir, a
famous Islamic scholar has written about Prophet Ayoub and the story is based
on the Quran. As the story goes Ayoub was a descendant of Noah and he was steadfast
in devotion of God and was considered as the best man of the generation. He was
very rich with two wives and 15 sons living a humble life and Satan’s heart was
filled with jealousy. Satan attempted to distract Ayoub from his prayers to god
& the righteous path he was following but Ayoub remained resolute and
remained as he was before. Satan rage grew and he then complained to the God
that Ayoub is so devoted worshipper because the God had given him wealth,
health, happiness and processions. God then allowed Satan and his helpers to destroy
Ayoub’s wealth and possessions. Satan and his helpers then went on to destroy Ayoub’s
wealth, children and his health and yet the Satan could not destroy the steady
fast devotion of God in Ayoub’s heart. Ayoub endured the ordeal without any
complains and he became frail and weak with maggots on his body. Because of his
conditions he had to leave the place of his birth since he was unwanted and
unwelcome there. He then came to Dhofar region and it was when his wife who
accompanied him through this ordeal left him and went elsewhere he called upon
God begging for mercy. Pleased with the unflinching devotion God told him to
stamp his foot down on earth and Lo when Ayoub did that a small spring of water
pour out from that spot and this water cured Ayoub of his illness and he
recovered to once again to be healthy and his possession slowly came back
including his wife. He went on to live for a very long time after that in the
similar fashion as he was throughout his earlier life. (This story is pieced together
with help of Google and I apologize if I have made errors in the story)

The spot where
Prophet Ayoub stamped down by his foot is imprinted and is still visible just
outside the tomb where the remains of the Prophet rests on top of Jebel Ittin,
about 30Kms off Salalah. The first thing you would notice is that the foot
print is quite huge and as you enter the building housing the tomb you can
visualize that Prophet Ayoub was a big man around 12 to 13 feet in height and
about 4- 5 feet wide by seeing the burial spot. I have not comments of this
since I was not able to find physical attributes of Prophet Ayoub. The walls of this building is adorned with sacred writings as seen in the images shared

Today this spot
is a tourist attraction and during Khareef seasons tourist’s throng to this
place in thousands. Beautiful road to the top of the mountain is filled with
mist and is very scenic and I am sure most of you would enjoy this spot.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

The Giant Indian squirrel or the Malabar squirrel (Ratufa Indica) is a large tree squirrel native to India. It is a large bodied squirrel and it is the state animal of Maharashtra. Here are couple of images of the Malabar squirrels

The Indian squirrel is herbivorous and is often found on the tree tops and hardly ever seen on the ground.

The Malabar squirrels has conspicuously two or three tone color which may be tan, rust brown, dark seal brown or beige . The underside of it is generally cream color. Raptors and leopard are a threat to this squirrel and when in danger it does not flee instead flattens itself on the tree trunk .

Monday, May 2, 2016

Recent spurts of suicides by persons from the films and television medium
and has been widely reported in Electronic & Social media networks. The
recent one being that of a TV artiste Pratyusha Banerjee who supposedly
committed suicide. There are scores suicides that take place among farmers of
rural India that hardly get a mention in the news unless being stoked by
political parties. Come to think of these deaths, the causes in most of the
suicidal deaths have been due to depression. So logically depressions can kill
you unless you are able to overcome the same.

Depression
occurs when one feels burdened beyond an extent… it may be non-repayment of
loans or mounting loans, no success in chosen field, lack of love, lack of
companionship and so forth and some of the reasons may be out right silly too.
Depressed people will never admit to being depressed as they think that they
would be ridiculed by their peers. Most of us do feel low sometimes but then if
you are suffering from depression the down period is for a longer duration say
weeks or months. This feeling of depression is considered by most people as
very trivial matter and not a medical condition but then they are very wrong
and they should consult a doctor for this condition since this can be treated
by medications. If left untreated it could lead to the person taking very harsh
steps in life that cannot be retraced. Here I wish to narrate an incident that
occurred in Gulf where I work, a colleague of mine was totally depressed since
he had an affair with a Vietnamese woman who was insisting on marriage though
he was married with two children. This caused him to neglect his work, stopped
communication with family, friends and colleagues and was suicidal in nature.
He was sent back to India for treatment and when he returned he seemed to have
overcome the depression since he was able to convince his first wife to accept
his second marriage. All was well for a year or so and then the second wife
travelled to Australia to her higher studies and there she delivered their
first child for which he had gone and come. During her second visit to Oman she
came back pregnant with someone else’s child for which my colleague threw her
out of the house after taking custody of the child. Now he was alone at Muscat
with a 2 year old son and somehow was managing work as well as home. The second
wife being Vietnamese brought in lots of pressures on this person to release
the child to her custody and one such letter to our management from this woman
and also from the Indian embassy pushed him beyond all control. He then one
weekend afternoon smothered his two year old son to death and then hung himself
to death.

Depressions
can cause a person to become alcoholic, violent, withdrawn, and listless. At
extreme moments it sure can make a person suicidal and this tendency may
dissipate if they are able to communicate their thoughts to either a family
member or friends. Communication plays a vital role in helping people who are
depressed and hence it is said that not to keep your feelings bottled up inside
you but to vent it out to your companion, friend or relatives thereby avoiding
volcanic eruptions of the feeling that can hurt the people around and self. It
is very easy for us to call a person who has committed suicide a coward but
then it takes immense courage to take the final step in the suicide. I have
known of a friend who took this extreme step within a blink of an eye by taking
poison but repent after having done the act and we could not save him because
it was too late and the poison had entered the blood stream. Had he
communicated his worries and thoughts to someone and maybe he would have been
alive this day.

I
am sure that all you readers would also have come across various incidents that
would have resulted in a suicide and when we think about it find it to be a
very silly reason to have thrown the precious life away. Do share your thoughts

Sunday, May 1, 2016

The
planet earth is dying all around us at a pace that has not been seen from the
time of extinction of Dinosaurs and the major cause of this is the human greed.
We continue to pillage the forest cutting down trees, extract ground water much
faster than it can get replenished, extract fossil fuel from the earth that
takes millions of years to form at a rate that it will not possible for the
earth to recoup. The scientists say that the extinction of mammals and
vertebrates in the last century alone is equivalent to 800 to 10,000 years of
extinction without human interference. The earth’s biodiversity is being
depleted at an alarming rate by humans and if allowed to continue at this pace
then we would lose many of the benefits of biodiversity within the next three
human lifetimes.

It
is as though that we are sawing off the branch we are sitting on and being aware of the consequences of the actions being taken. We humans are
sure in for a very bumpy and a hard ride in years to come if we do nothing to
reduce the damage being done to the planet earth. Heat waves due to global
warming has people sweltering, water scarcity in many part of India,
devastating earth quakes around and so forth already have started to happen and
would keep intensifying year on year and hence we humans have to take urgent
steps to prevent or curtail the onset of the 6th Extinction , which
some scientists say has begun.

Leonardo
Dicaprio in his acceptance speech at Oscars this year stated this “Making
the Revenant was about man’s relationship to the natural world. A world that we
collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our
production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to
find snow. Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most
urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively
together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world
who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for
the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of
underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this. For our
children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been
drowned out by the politics of greed. I thank you all for this amazing award tonight.
Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight
for granted”

I
do concur with the statement made by Leonardo and so do all those who love nature…
we should not take this planet for granted and all of us have to collectively
act in order to ensure that earth is able to recoup itself from all the
damages being done to it on a continuous basis instead of dying out on us !!!

The definition of the phrase “Washing dirty linen in public” is to
discuss personal and private matter in public and I guess most of us have been
taught not to do that right from the childhood. But this does not apply to
celebrities who just do this so as to garner media coverage on to themselves
even if means that they lose their privacy. A classic example of this phrase is
the ongoing spat between Actors Hrithik
Roshan and Kangana Raut about their alleged relationship.

This has been dominating the social media and the news media with
each slapping legal notices on to each other. Our starry eyed public is lapping
up these spicy tidbits that are being released in spurts akin to new movie
releases. The legal issue has taken an ugly turn to such an extent that each of
the actors are washing their dirty linen in public that should have been privy
only to them. The electronic media is going gaga over these tidbits and it is
the trial by media instead of waiting for the civil court judgment. Cannot
blame these media houses with them wanting to increase the TRP’s are publishing
unverified items such as emails and images and are keeping the people engrossed
in this spat.

In a recent development few emails that has been supposedly written
by Kangana Raut to Hrithik has been leaked ( Read here)
to the press and it has created quite a storm and as per these mails it seems
Hrithik is innocent. But Kangana’s legal team states that genuineness of these
emails has to be ascertained as they claim that the actresses email has been
hacked and she is not the one writing these mails. Further today an image of
Hritik hugging Kangana in a suggestive manner is circulating in the electronic
and social media making this case even murkier. With each passing day the case is becoming murkier and accusations flying
around these two people. This happens if one tries to wash their dirty linen is
public

About Me

A widely traveled, an engineer by profession and reaching the milestone of becoming a senior citizen, living each day of life as it comes. Life is short so enjoy while it lasts. Love wildlife adventures and visiting new places